


Indelible

by The_Cinderninja



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Revelations, implied past noncon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25678996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Cinderninja/pseuds/The_Cinderninja
Summary: He's sure mom is on to his secret. He never expected her to have her own secret to reveal. Maddie is finally ready to tell her son the truth. Pseudo-reveal fic, dark themes.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Comments: 8
Kudos: 105





	Indelible

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place immediately after the events of Bitter Reunions, on the drive home.

Idelible  
Danny Phantom Fanfiction  
by The Cinerninja

* * *

The long drive home from Wisconsin started off innocuously enough. Jack was dominating the conversation as usual, with Jazz speaking up just enough to let her opinion on the whole weekend be known. No, she hadn't seen any ghosts. No, she didn't believe her father had actually wrestled a ghost. No, she wasn't surprised Harriet lost her job. No, she didn't think they would ever be invited back, and no, she didn't especially care. All things said, the weekend was about as big a waste of time as she had initially expected it to be.

About a day in to their drive however, Danny realized his mom was being uncharacteristically quiet. She hadn't said much at all since he had intimidated Vlad off, in his father's body. After Vlad had admitted his temporary defeat, Maddie had quickly gathered her family, packed their belongings, and hit the road.

Only now did Danny realize how strange that was. Normally her and Jack would have been searching the castle top to bottom, pulling out the Fenton Finder, and whatever other ridiculous gadgets they had on hand (which was no doubt at least two dozen), to track down the spectral offender. The fact that not only she, but Jack as well, had so quickly abandoned the party /and/ the ghost, was concerning.

He was so lost in thought that he almost didn't notice his mother looking at him - he blinked to awareness just in time to make uncomfortable eye contact, and they both quickly looked away.

Why was she watching him? Had she noticed? Did she know? Is that why they left so quickly? Danny had not been bluffing when he told Vlad that his family would accept him. They had always made it clear that they would accept him, no matter what happened, and he was sure that this wouldn't change things. At least, he had been. As the hours dragged on and the sun started it's descent, Danny continued to catch his mom watching him out of the corner of his eye. She looked serious, concerned. Solemn. None of this boded well for Danny, and he found himself sweating and fidgeting in the uncomfortable not knowing. He wished she would say something. Instead, he had to listen to his dad and Jazz argue over the radio station.

Just when Danny thought he couldn't take anymore and would have to ask his mom what was wrong, the tension peaked. The Fenton GAV pulled into a dark Walmart parking lot for the night, and as Jazz unbuckled herself to pull out her sleeping bag, Maddie glanced sidelong at Jack, before looking at Danny. "If you don't mind, I think I'd like to talk to Danny outside, before settling in for the night." She announced through pursed lips, looking reluctant yet determined.

Danny did not like where this was going.

Jack nodded in understanding. "Of course! I'll get your beds set up!" He answered with classic exuberance. "Don't stay out too late, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow!"

Maddie nodded at her husband before smiling at Danny. "Danny... would you mind?"

Yes! He thought. I would mind, very much! Instead, he nodded back wearily. "Sure, mom... what's this about?" He rubbed the back of his neck as he followed her out of the GAV.

"I... There's something I need to talk to you about, Danny." She began, looking down at the dark pavement as she aimlessly crossed the parking lot. "Your father and I haven't been entirely honest with you."

Danny bit his lip. "I haven't exactly been entirely honest with you either." He muttered to himself under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

Maddie gave him an odd look, and came to a stop in front of a metal bench, illuminated by a single streelight. She took a seat, and patted the empty spot beside her, gesturing for Danny to sit as well.

She waited for him to settle in before continuing. "Danny - there's no easy way to put this, but I want you to remember that your father and I love you, no matter what. You know that, right?"

Danny fidgeted. He knew this could still be about something totally different, but it was looking less and less likely by the minute. Still... he appreciated the sentiment. "Yea- yeah mom. I know."

She nodded, and took a breath. "I'd like to tell you a story - I know you don't appreciate it when your father and I reminisce, but I think it's important that you finally knew about this."

Danny's eyebrows furrowed as he tried following his mother's train of thought, but nodded regardless. He was happy letting her lead this conversation, until he was more clear on what exactly they were actually talking about.

"Danny..." She closed her eyes, looked away. Everything about her posture shouted regret. Taking a breath, she looked back at her son and placed a hand on his arm. "Danny - I'm sure you've noticed how our machines are always going off around you?"

He nodded, ignoring his instinct to inch away, and instead raising his opposite hand to lay it on top of where his mothers rested on his arm. "Yeah..."

"I know we always tried to write it off, blame it on ecto-contamination from the lab-" she choked on her words. "But Danny, you need to know. You aren't entirely... human."

The silence between the two of them was pregnant with tension.

"Mom, I - I don't know what you're talking about-" Danny stuttered, even while asking himself if this was really such a bad thing. She said she still accepted him. She said she was okay with it. He didn't _need_ to keep denying it. If she knew - and if Jack knew - then maybe he could finally stop stressing out about having to hide it every time his arm accidentally went intangible, or he started sinking through the floor.

She shushed him gently. "It's okay, Danny. I know this is a lot, but... the truth is, you're half ghost."

The penny dropped. Danny slumped, letting both his hands fall to his shoes, which were pulled up beside him on the bench. He breathed out slowly, looking down at his lap. "How - how did you find out?"

"This story... it start's a long ways back. You know how Jack and I built the very first functioning prototype of the Ghost Portal when we were in University?"

Danny nodded. This couldn't be about - she didn't know about Vlad too, did she?

"Well... that was the beginning of a real nightmare for us. After we first activated the Proto-Portal, Vlad was hospitalized. I realized that the calculations had been off, and your father and I decided to continue our research. It took a few months, but eventually, we got the portal to stabilize." She smiled nostalgically and added "That was the day your father proposed to me."

She caught sight of Danny's confused expression, trying to keep up with where this story was going, and decided to keep to the more vital details. "Danny, everything started going _wrong._ We let... _something_ through that portal, when it opened. Jack was constantly being attacked, he couldn't get any work done, he couldn't sleep - it was constant."

Danny frowned. They let a ghost through the proto-portal, all the way back then? And it... _haunted_ them?

"It got so bad, Danny. Nothing we tried worked - we used the traditional methods back then, because to us... well, we weren't ghost hunters. We were just scientists, students. We didn't know what to do. He was waking up with more injuries every day. We burned sage, he wore anise, we lined the dorm with agrimony and salt. We learned how to perform an exorcism, we tried to bless the room. Nothing worked."

Danny was actually fascinated - he couldn't even begin to imagine his parents burning incense, or - or performing an exorcism! They always scoffed at and discredited anything that wasn't firmly rooted in science.

"So those things really don't work?" He asked, mostly for confirmation that he really needn't worry about them himself.

Maddie's expression was dead serious when she looked at him. "No, Danny. They don't."

Danny nodded and inched backwards, cowed by how serious his mother was being right now - wow, she - she and dad had really been haunted? Why did they never tell him or Jazz about this?

"It got worse. It started to focus on me. It was - all the classic signs of a poltergeist. Weight, on my chest. It would make me at night by throwing things across the room, it would lift my bed from the floor, and trap me in it. I would be stuck for hours at a time, some nights." She sighed, looking forlorn. "We had to drop out." She admitted. "It was just... too much. We moved across State."

Danny was shocked. "You and dad - you both dropped out!?" He demanded. He never knew that- how did he never know that?

Maddie grimaced. This was clearly a sore subject for her. "Yes... we planned on continuing later, when we finally managed to rid ourselves of our spirit, but it wasn't to be. Whatever it was, it followed us. It only seemed to stop after your sister was born. We didn't want to risk anything happening to her, so we moved here to Amity Park. Miles and miles away, to a newly built house. No history, no energy, a fresh start. And for a few years, it worked.

But one night, it came back. Your father was away at a trade show. They were vital, at that time of our lives. We had to get our name out in the world. We needed funding, for our research. We were determined to discover the secrets of the Ghost Zone and it's inhabitants more then ever, because we had a family to protect now.

That night... it found me in the house, alone. There was nothing I could do to stop it, Danny. We didn't have weapons like we have now. But I finally saw it, for the first time. That ghost, Danny. It was the same ghost that was at Vlad's castle."

When she looked at him, her eyes were filled with a deep pain. The kind you never want your children to see. But she was showing it to him, so that he could in turn see just how much _love_ was also in that expression. Love for him.

"Danny, I've... I've only ever told your father what happened that night, but..." She steeled her expression. "You deserve to know. You were born so healthy, so... _normal,_ I thought... I thought everything would be okay. And the ghost never returned to us after that. It was like we were finally free."

"Mom - I don't understand. What are you trying to say?" Danny asked, eyes wide with dread.

"Danny - this doesn't change anything. Your father knows, he's always known, and he loves you like his own."


End file.
